19.11.2024 Ankara
Organized by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council (KGK) and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Türkiye (TEPAV), the Türkiye's Entrepreneurial Women Power Competition Award Ceremony was held with the participation of Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Minister of Family and Social Services, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council President Nurten Öztürk.
In his speech, TOBB
President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they continue to guide women
entrepreneurs from industry to agriculture, from foreign trade to e-commerce
with the TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council.
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that they have enabled women entrepreneurs to increase their competencies,
digitalize, access finance and receive investments through collaborations with
global companies, and continued:
“I would like to
summarize our success over the years and how we have done the right thing with
numbers. Immediately after the establishment of the TOBB Women Entrepreneurs
Council, that is, in 2008, while there was only 1 female chairman of the board
of directors and council chairman in our community, today this number has
increased to 9. In 2008, the number of women board members was 9, today this
number has reached 56. The number of female council members increased from 93
in 2008 to 334. You see that women entrepreneurs are increasingly represented
in all organs of our community.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed
out that the ratio of female employees of the companies applying to the
competition to total employees is 49 percent, “So one of their two employees is
a woman. Our companies that will receive awards in this category increased
women's employment by 40 percent in the 2022-2023 period. Our winning company
increased its female employment by 59 percent compared to last year.”
Referring to the
applications in the category of “entrepreneurial women's power”, Hisarcıklıoğlu
said, “Here, our women entrepreneurs, who grew the fastest, increased their
exports the most, digitalized the most and were the most environmentally
friendly, were evaluated according to their performance in the 2021-2023
period. Applications were made to this category from 19 different provinces.
Our companies, which were entitled to receive an award in the 'fastest growing
company' category, grew by an average of 836 percent in the 2021-2023 period.
The growth rate of our winning company in this period is 2340 percent. 72
percent of our women entrepreneurs who applied to the competition in the
category of 'the company that increased its exports the most' export to 55
different countries. The export amount of our company, which ranked first in
this category, increased exactly 400 times.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
underlined that there is nothing that women cannot do if given the opportunity
and said, “I wholeheartedly applaud all of our women entrepreneurs. You are
success stories that everyone can look up to. You are role models for all women
and a source of inspiration for them. I say it at every opportunity,
intelligence and success have no gender, if women are strong, society and the
country will be strong.”
- Minister of Family and Social Services Göktaş
Minister of Family and
Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş said that the commonality of all the
guests in the hall was to create change.
“If there are women,
there is a future,” Göktaş said, adding that women's entrepreneurship is the
cornerstone of not only economic development but also social transformation.
Stating that a business
raised by a woman benefits not only herself and her family but also her
environment, her country and even the world, Göktaş said: “Ensuring equal
participation of women in all areas of social, political, economic and cultural
life is the key to the total development of our country. With this belief, as
the Ministry, we are taking steps to ensure that women are more involved in
employment, entrepreneurship, decision-making and representation mechanisms.
Within the framework of the targets set out in our 12th Development
Plan, we continue our efforts to increase the female labor force participation
rate to 40.1 percent and the female employment rate to 36.2 percent by the end
of 2028.”
Göktaş said that within
the scope of the Women's Empowerment Strategy Document and Action Plan, they
have set targets for vocational training programs that will increase women's
participation in employment, entrepreneurship supports, policies to strengthen
gender equality in working life and flexible working models.
Explaining that they
created the web page “kadingirisimci.gov.tr” in order to reach more women by
gathering the work of various institutions on a single platform to support
women entrepreneurship, Göktaş continued as follows
“We reached 750,000 people
in 81 provinces with the Financial Literacy and Women's Economic Empowerment
Seminars we provided in 2018-2023. Within the scope of the protocol we signed
with the Capital Markets Board this year, we aim to raise awareness on
financial literacy and expand trainings. With the Women's Empowerment through
Cooperatives Project, we encourage women to participate more effectively in
economic and social life. Within the scope of the project, we conduct training,
consultancy and awareness-raising activities to increase participation in
existing cooperatives, improve women's capacities and increase employment. On
November 15, we signed a cooperation protocol with Hepsiburada to promote
women's entrepreneurship and strengthen women's cooperatives. With this
cooperation, we will carry out activities that will contribute to increasing women's
skills and activities, especially in the field of e-commerce.”
Stating that they have
offered good opportunities for over 1,200 female students to develop their
talents with the Engineer Girls of Türkiye Project, Göktaş said that they have
supported 400 women to develop their talents in these fields with the
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Development Program for Women, which
was launched in October for young women who are neither in education nor in
employment.
Minister Göktaş
emphasized that a very important progress has been made in increasing women's
employment under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and said, “With
the decisive steps taken, the female employment rate in our country has
increased to 32.5 percent and the labor force participation rate of women to
37.4 percent. We continue to work with all our efforts to carry these gains we
have achieved to a higher point. In this sense, your determination, solidarity
and contributions are our greatest source of motivation in increasing women's
employment and strengthening social welfare. Each of you is a leader and a
guide in this field.”
TOBB KGK President
Nurten Öztürk said that it is everyone's duty to support women entrepreneurs.
Explaining that they provide all kinds of support for women entrepreneurs to
become world brands, Öztürk said, “I would like to emphasize that we should
sign more projects together to support our women and entrepreneurs. Encouraging
women entrepreneurship and ensuring that women take more place in the business
world is not only a social responsibility, but also a critical step for our
economic development.”
- Companies that received awards in Türkiye's
Entrepreneurial Women Power Competition
I- Company that Increased Women's Employment the Most
1st FOCUS KONTROL
2nd MAN TÜRKİYE
3rd UNIARCH CLINICAL
ENGINEERING
II- Entrepreneurial Women Power
The Most
Environmentally Friendly Women Entrepreneur Company
RVM SYSTEMS MACHINE
The Most Digitalized
Women Entrepreneur Company
G TECHNOLOGY
INFORMATION
The Women Entrepreneur
Company that Increased Exports the Most
AK CELEP COTTON FOOD
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
The Women Entrepreneur
Company that Increased Exports the Fastest
BADE FABRIC TEXTILE
GARMENT
1st Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
DG DIRECT RECOVERY
2nd Fastest
Growing Female Entrepreneur Company
MORCADDE E-COMMERCE
3rd Fastest
Growing Female Entrepreneur Company
MAYI SALT MINING
4th Fastest
Growing Female Entrepreneur Company
BONETA
5th Fastest
Growing Female Entrepreneur Company
OFM CARPET FURNITURE
6th Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
INOVMAK MAKİNA
7th Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
PREFİ PREFABRİK YAPI
INDUSTRY
8th Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
POLYETTA AGRICULTURE
9th Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
TEKBA GIDA
10th Fastest
Growing Women Entrepreneur Company
ASIA INTEGRATED WASTE
MANAGEMENT
III - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Category
Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Company with the Highest
Increase in Female Employment
MERCADO GIDA GROUP
COMPANIES
Turkish Republic of
Cyprus Chamber of Commerce Most Environmentally Friendly Female Entrepreneur
Company
BMP TRADE
Turkish Republic of
Cyprus Chamber of Commerce Most Digitized Female Entrepreneur Company
CHERRY RED ADVERSITING
Turkish Republic of
Cyprus Chamber of Commerce Fastest Growing Female Entrepreneur Company
NECAT GROUP
